Lacrosse: The Freshmen Are Here!

The Notre Dame lacrosse 2019 roster has been posted, giving us a first official look at this year’s freshmen. Coach Corrigan often notes that each year ten students leave, and ten new ones take their place. While this seems obvious, it also means this group will eventually be called upon to take the place of 2018’s departing seniors, which include Schmiesser Award winner John “#46Trucking” Sexton, the ageless Carlson Milikin, Pierre Byrne, Brendan Collins, Austin Gaiss, John Travisano, and, of course, Mikey Wynne and many others. We’re excited to see what this top-4 class can do.

#1 Junior Almeida F/O 6’1″ 195 lbs

It’s not often we see a player listed as a pure faceoff specialist on a Notre Dame roster, and this year we have three, including Almeida, the #12 faceoff recruit according to Inside Lacrosse. Almeida is from the same high school as John Sexton.

#15 Quinn McCahon M 6’1″ 175 lbs

This midfielder from Malvern, PA has a great all-around skill set and a reputation for good defense that makes him the kind of player that may see the field early in his time at Notre Dame.

#25 Quentin Buchman M 5’10” 175 lbs

Inside Lacrosse’s #1 midfielder in the country shot up fifty spots in the rankings in what seemed like a few weeks, and stayed hot all summer. If this Californian gets an inch of space he’s looking to score. Lefty, righty, overhand, underhand, any range. A very fun player to watch.

#27 James McCreary A 5’8″ 155 lbs

A Texan on the roster, and one of the top players nationally. Ramsey breaks a lot of ankles with slick moves and has a good outside shot as a bonus. Makes us think of Conor Doyle.

#33 Griffin Hawthorne D 6’0″ 195 lbs

Griffin is a highly regarded cover man from Massapequa. He’s old school and doesn’t play club lacrosse, so there isn’t much video on him, but he’s been one of the top defenders on the Island since his sophomore year.

#35 Mark McGinley M 6’2″ 190 lbs

Mark is a tall product from outside of Cleveland, Ohio. He’s listed on the roster as a midfielder, but we’ve enjoyed his high school videos where he had a lot of success as a Mikey Wynne-esque crease attackman.

#42 Justin Cheng LSM 5’8″ 167 lbs

The Californian already made an impression on campus playing guitar with Todd Rundgren. There was a lot of buzz around Justin last year. He’s not afraid to shoot with the pole, and he has one of the best can openers we’ve seen in recent years.

#43 Griffin Westlin A/M 5’10” 165 lbs

Griffin is ranked in the nation’s top-10 midfielders, but some folks say he may be our next Ryder Garnsey. He really has some creativity and a killer left hand shot like Garnsey, but he also seems suited for the hybrid role like Gleason. It will be fun seeing where the coaches put him.

#45 Chris Nelson G 6’3″ 190 lbs

Nelson is a tall goalie from North Carolina and was the quarterback of his high school team.

#46 Jose Boyer LSM 5’10” 185 lbs

#46TruckingRemix This Yorktown Heights product is completely embracing the John Sexton attitude and is wearing Sexton’s number. There was a lot of positive comment about his wing play and time he spent as LSM in the scrimmages against Yale and Harvard this fall. Jose took a post-grad year, so we’ve been eagerly awaiting his arrival for a long time. This video is rather old, but imagine where he is with four years of improvement.

#51 Jake Moss M 6’3″ 215 lbs

Jake is a very big, versatile, and highly-ranked midfielder from New Jersey, also coming off a post-graduate year. We enjoy how he is comfortable using his size and does a good job shooting right and left handed.

This is a very excited class of freshmen, all great players and great students. We think fans of Notre Dame lacrosse should be very eager to see this guys take the field.

It’s time for us to ramp up our 2019 coverage! Please check 18Stripes in the coming weeks for our recap of signing day and our season preview. If there is a subject you want us to cover, let us know in the comments!